Turkey trains Kurdish peshmerga forces in fight against Islamic State

ISTANBUL, Nov 22 (Reuters) - Turkish soldiers are training
Kurdish peshmerga fighters in northern Iraq and will give
similar assistance to a new national army unit in Baghdad as
part of the struggle against Islamic State, a senior Turkish
official said on Saturday.

"Turkey has already started training peshmerga forces in
northern Iraq ... and we have agreed to train and give
assistance to the National Guard," the official said.

Peshmerga spokesman Brigadier General Halgurd Hikmat
confirmed that Turkish soldiers had started special forces
training with peshmerga fighters in northern Iraq three weeks
ago but declined to comment on the numbers involved.

(Reporting by Humeyra Pamuk in Istanbul and Isabel Coles in
Arbil; Writing by Nick Tattersall; Editing by Alison Williams)